A Very Jaguar Christmas (7 page)

Everett got his sister up and rushed her off at four in the morning so she could get to work on time. Then he checked on Demetria, but she was still sound asleep. He sighed. He hoped she would feel okay when she got up. He had every intention of making her a concoction to take care of a hangover, but thankfully Tammy didn't have one, so he hoped Demetria would also be fine.

He grabbed a cup of coffee and had just settled back on the couch, closed his eyes, and fallen asleep when he got a call. Hell, had Tammy not made it to work after all? He should have driven her. Then he saw that it was half past five, shortly after his mother opened her day care, and that's who the call was from. Mary Anderson owned and operated the Little Angels Day Care—for jaguar shifters only. If a human family tried to reserve space for a child, she'd quickly tell them she was booked. Jaguar referrals or shifter families she already knew were usually the only ones she signed up to stay at her day care.

Mary took in jaguar-shifter cubs for working parents and watched older kids from time to time so moms could run errands or go to social events without worrying about their kids or finding a sitter. Sometimes moms wanted time to run alone as jaguars and would leave their children off at the day care for a couple of hours, which meant their kiddos would turn into jaguars cubs, so his mom couldn't ever take in a strictly human child.

She loved all the kids like they were her own, but when she called him like this, it had to mean trouble.

Everett didn't mind helping her out when she needed some muscle to put things together or whatever. Though he'd really wanted to sleep in a bit this morning after playing video games so late and then the business with Demetria and Tammy last night. But the thought of actually managing a bunch of pint-size kids? That was better left to others who were into the little tykes. He had no problem with teens.

Even now, he could hear the kids screaming and crying in the background.

“You have to come help me right away.” His mother had dealt with a number of crises with kids at the day care over the years, anything from a jaguar cub biting another who was still in his human form and breaking the skin, to a jaguar cub slipping out into the backyard, leaping from a playground castle to the fence, and jumping over it to run free. That escape had caused a massive jaguar hunt for the wayward preschooler for two hours until Everett had heard him snoring, sound asleep underneath an overturned fishing boat in a distant neighbor's yard.

“If it has to do with kid problems at the day care, someone else can take care of it. Maybe Huntley? He and his mate managed jaguar cubs in the jungle and did a great job of it.” Everett desperately tried to think of alternatives, but if his mom was calling him, there couldn't be any. He was definitely a last resort.

“You know very well they are away on missions or teaching new JAG agents. And Maya lives over three hours away. You're not working any cases right now. You told me you were off for the next two weeks. And this is an emergency. I need you now.” Then she hung up on him.

So much for getting out of it. He sighed. He knew she had to really need his help, and he was already getting ready to tackle whatever the problem was.

Looking at the cold, wintry day outside, he scribbled a note for Demetria, telling her to call him if she needed anything and that he hoped she was feeling better. He wanted to say he'd planned to fix her breakfast, if she could stomach it. Or whatever else she needed. But she might just sleep half the day anyway, so he only said that he needed to go.

He drove to the day care twenty minutes away and parked, braced himself, and headed inside, the doorbell playing the rendition of cats meowing the tune of “Jingle Bells” instead of the usual “Yellow Rose of Texas” melody. The place was cheerful, perfect for jaguar shifters, the walls painted in vivid jungle motif—green vines and trees, with colorful orchids, monkeys, jaguar cubs, and parrots hiding in the dense foliage. Even the child-sized furniture included chairs and tables hand-carved in the form of zebras, giraffes, and jaguars. A large fish tank sat against one wall, featuring all kinds of colorful fish, and an iguana had his own exhibit nearby.

Tons of children's handmade Christmas decorations hung on a Christmas tree—everything from colorful paper-chain garlands, strings of cranberries, and popcorn garlands to handprint angels in clay molds and reindeer cut out of colored paper with red pom-pom balls for noses, making it appear Santa Claus even made trips to the jungle.

Everett's mother rushed out to greet him, wearing green jeans and a T-shirt with a jungle print featuring a jaguar's portrait, the cat wearing a Santa's hat for Christmas, and the name of her day care written across the top. Her dark-blond hair, streaked with strands of white, had fallen loose from her bun. She looked like she was having a really tough day, even though it had only just begun. She wore a deep frown and was wringing her hands, but she gave him a quick hug. “We have a real crisis on our hands.”

Everett noticed that whenever his mother had a real crisis, their father, Roy Anderson, stayed clear of the place. He was an undercover operative of some sort, but being undercover, he'd never told the family the real story of his work.

“One of the kids is deathly sick? Or dead? Wounded? Escaped again?” Everett couldn't imagine anything else that could be that drastic.

“No, no, worse.”

“Worse?” What could be worse than any of
those
situations? His mother wasn't given to hysterics without good cause, he reminded himself.

“We were getting ready to practice for the Christmas play when three of the four-year-olds shifted.” She headed toward a back room.

“The mom or moms didn't tell you they were going to run as jaguars?” He didn't get what the severity of the problem was. He was certain that had happened at her day care before, and it was no big deal.

Then he heard a growl, a bark, and a small howl coming from the room. He frowned. They didn't have dogs at the day care.

“Come here, you. Come here!” Lacy said from the back room.

Everett wondered why she was here.

A louder bark and growl, then scratching and more hissing and snarls sounded.

“No, no, no. It's okay, puppy.” Lacy's voice was alternately in charge and then coaxing.

“A preschooler was dropped off at the day care,” his mom said. “To our shock, the boy turned into a white wolf pup.”

“
No way.
”

They reached the room, and his mom pulled the door open. “I couldn't get ahold of the cubs to protect them from the wolf pup, or vice versa. Every time I tried, they leaped out of my reach. And the wolf pup scrambled underneath the furniture. Heidi had to take care of the other children while I called you to help us out. Lacy's been trying to get ahold of him.”

Six years old now, Lacy was wearing her angel wings and a white angel's costume, her hands on her hips, but when she saw Everett, she ran to give him a hug. She always did, no matter how much time had passed since he saved her in the Costa Rican rain forest. He found the hugs endearing and was glad she hadn't had nightmares about the experience.

But what really grabbed his attention were three jaguar cubs hissing at a wolf pup—a white Arctic wolf pup. He was running back and forth, looking like he wanted to play with them but wasn't too sure, since he kept trying to approach them and then leaping away. The jaguar cubs moved toward him too but were clearly unsure how to react, alternately sniffing and jumping and scampering backward.

“He's cute, isn't he?” Lacy looked up at Everett with wide, green eyes.

“He is.” But what he was doing here was another story. When the pup saw Everett, he ran to greet him. The jaguars chased after the wolf, and Everett scooped him up in his arms to protect him. The pup licked his face in greeting, his tail wagging a hundred miles a minute in appreciation. Everett smiled. Not that this was anything to smile about, but the pup
was
cute, and he liked Everett. That certainly gave the pup points in his favor.

Two of the jaguar cubs were wearing halos around their necks. The other jaguar had managed to slip out of his. White cotton angel gowns lay scattered on the tile floor, along with a set of pint-size clothes—sneakers, socks, underpants, jeans, a blue sweatshirt, a sweater, and a heavy gray jacket.

Everett didn't believe it. “Mom, werewolves
don't
exist.”

“I'm not crazy. He shifted.”

“Did you
see
him shift?” Even if she had, he didn't think he'd believe it unless he actually saw it for himself.

“Well, no. I was trying to dress the preschoolers in their angel costumes to make sure they all fit for the play in a week. Heidi was busy with spilled cereal and milk when Tommy accidentally tipped his bowl off the table. Then the baby needed his diaper changed, and another started to throw up. I had to leave the room for a moment when Heidi needed me to take care of the baby who was throwing up while she was changing the other baby's diaper. She quickly finished and was headed to the room to take over for me when the doorbell jingled its tune. We had one toddler who hadn't been dropped off yet, so that's who we expected. Then she called out that it wasn't Sarah. And all the growling and barking and hissing began.”

Everett glanced at Lacy. She raised her hands in the air and shrugged. “I was helping Heidi clean up the mess Tommy made so I didn't see the new boy shift.”

“Where did you get the pup?” Everett asked his mom.

“A woman dropped him off.”

He didn't know how his mother could deal with all of it. He'd rather fight terrorists in the jungle.

“The pup smells like a wolf,” Everett said as the pup snuggled against his black sweatshirt, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

Lacy reached up to pet the puppy.

“Heidi thought his jaguar parents must have owned a wolf dog. We were busy. It's always hectic first thing in the morning when the parents drop off their little ones. Though not usually
this
chaotic. We're trying to get them all fed and start our programs for the day.” His mom went to remove the halos from around the jaguar cubs' necks.

“I thought the jaguar moms would tell you if they were going to shift.” He knew that wasn't exactly the point, but he was trying to make some sense of the chaos.

“They did, Everett. We were just behind. I was fitting their gowns and halos, and I didn't realize it was getting this late.”

“What about the person who brought the boy in?”

“Heidi said she didn't see her. We heard the doorbell kitty-cat ‘Jingle Bells' song, but no one was in the outer room. The woman just set the boy over the gate and left a bag.”

“Are you sure this isn't someone's idea of a prank? Someone just pulling your leg? They switched out the boy with a wolf pup and left him?”

“No. Heidi was with him the whole time. She asked his name, and he said his mommy told him never to talk to strangers, but he said his mommy and daddy were coming to get him later. He started tugging at his clothes to pull them off and said he had to shift. She didn't know what to think. He didn't smell like a jaguar. But human kids would never say such a thing.

“She tried to help him off with his clothes and called out to me in a panic. When she turned back, he had already shifted, still wearing his clothes, all but his shoes and jacket. ‘Ohmigod,' Heidi said. ‘Ohmigod. He's…he's a wolf.' Well, of course all the kids wanted to see, and the next thing I knew, some of the ones I had been dressing for the play had shifted into jaguars. And that's what you see now.”

“So Heidi saw the boy shift.”

“You know how fast we shift. She turned her head, and when she looked back, he was already a wolf.”

“I can't believe wolf shifters exist. And they're located here?” Everett wouldn't be able to wrap his mind around it unless he actually saw it happening.

The pup whimpered a little, his foot jerking in sleep.

As soon as Mary removed the two boys' halos, all three jaguar cubs raced over to Everett and began clawing at his jeans to get at the pup.

“No, down,” Everett scolded the cubs, not wanting them to tear his jeans or cut his skin as their sharp little fishhook claws dug into his leg.

“Come on.” Lacy tried to get ahold of one of the cubs. She was still tiny for her age, but she got one of the cubs and held on, telling her she had to behave.

His mom grabbed up one of the cubs. “No scratching,” she scolded the other one.

Before Everett could prepare himself, the wolf pup turned into a blond-haired, naked, approximately four-year-old boy, still sound asleep in his arms. Everett couldn't have been any more speechless. He looked from the boy to his mom to see if she had seen what had happened.

Her jaw had dropped. “Ohmigod, I don't believe it. Werewolves really
do
exist.”

Lacy's eyes were saucer-size.

Everett thought of the perfect person to handle this. Demetria was wholly suited for the mission because she loved kids of all ages and she was good at her job. Surely, she would believe him and his mother, since she knew them and wouldn't think they were trying to pull her leg. Even so, he suspected she would not believe it any more than he had. Until she saw it happen right before her eyes.

Then again, she might not be in any shape to deal with a wolf shifter or anything else this morning after the party she and Tammy had last night.

Early that morning, Demetria got an emergency call from the director of the Guardian branch. She was feeling better, but she was on vacation, had had to take something for a headache this morning, and fully intended to sleep for a few more hours. It was only six in the morning!

Then her heart thumped wildly, her first thought that something awful had happened with Brayden.

When her boss told her the trouble he was calling about, she immediately believed Ben Knight had gotten an early start on drinking mistletoe martinis in celebration of the holidays.

She put the call on speaker so she could get dressed. “Okay, sir, you're telling me that the jaguar shifter day care has an Arctic wolf shifter pup there. Really? That's like saying they have a Bigfoot baby there. They're trying to pull a prank on us.”

“I'm serious, Demetria. I need you to go over there immediately. You might know that a JAG agent's mother owns and operates the day care, so she called her son, Everett Anderson, first to take care of the situation with the little boy. Since Everett was working with you on Brayden Covington's case, he called and highly recommended you handle this one. The JAG agency doesn't normally deal with guardian-type services. That's our job.”

Mary Anderson's day care? Demetria couldn't believe it. Mary was great at creating fantastical stories and games for the kids, but Everett's mother didn't seem like the type to come up with a practical joke that involved a policing agency.

Demetria squinted at her reflection in the mirror. Ugh. She brushed her hair and began applying her makeup. “We don't handle anything like that for anyone other than jaguars
either
. This has to be someone's idea of a joke. This year, the different branches pulled all kinds of pranks on each other.”

“That was on April Fool's Day.”

“So, maybe they're a little early for next year.”

Ignoring her comment, Ben said, “I need you to check it out and report back to me ASAP.”

“All right, sir.” This was nuts. And she hated to be the fall guy.

“Okay, but if this truly is a case involving such a thing as a wolf shifter, I'm canceling your leave and assigning you the job. This case takes priority over anything else.”

Demetria wished she hadn't had that third margarita last night.

She grabbed her purse and glanced at the clean kitchen, vaguely recalling that Everett had mopped the floor before…before he carried her off to bed. Now she felt even guiltier that she'd said no to a date with him today. Was this a way for him to get even?

She headed out the door, still on the phone with Ben.

“All right?” Ben said, getting confirmation she was going along with the program.

“Yes, sir.” Because she knew this was all a dumb hoax. Though she couldn't believe Everett or his mother would try to pull a prank on her. She didn't know what to think.

When Demetria arrived at the day-care center, the pretend frost covering the windows made it look like a winter day in Dallas. Twinkling colorful lights hanging from the eaves and lights in the windows gave the center a real holiday look. The sign out front had two little angels holding jaguar cubs, signifying to jaguar shifters that one of their own ran the place. She didn't imagine any human day care would include jaguars in its motif, and she wondered what humans would think of having a wild animal as part of the branding.

Looking totally frazzled with her blond hair slipping from her bun, Mary Anderson met Demetria outside and quickly ushered her into the day care. “Oh, oh, I'm so glad you're here, Demetria. This is just, well…just…unreal. And wonderful. And horrible.”

Demetria had never seen Everett's mother so rattled. Well, except for the time she was helping search for the runaway preschooler. “My boss sent me to help take care of the situation. May I see the wolf shifter pup?”

“Yes, yes, this way. Everett has been watching over him. He starts crying and whimpering if we leave him alone for even a minute.”

“Wolf pack mentality,” Demetria said, as if buying into this. “Unless you mean your son.”

Mary smiled a little. “Everett will be thrilled you've arrived to take the pup off his hands. He was the one who called your boss and asked for your help. He was a little worried you might not be feeling well because you were a touch under the weather last night, but he knew you were just the one to handle this. We have a serious problem here.”

Demetria hoped Everett hadn't told his mother why she was a “touch under the weather” last night. “Besides the fact werewolves don't exist?”

“We don't know who the mother was.”

Demetria frowned at her. “You didn't sign the child in?” Even though she knew this had to be a joke, she still couldn't help treating it like a real case.

“No. Neither did Heidi Johansson, my helper,” Mary said. “The woman just dropped the child off, then left. If he had been strictly human and hadn't told Heidi he was going to shift and then shifted, I would have called child protective services.”

Demetria did smell the wolf scent, which told her that they'd had a real wolf or wolf dog here at some point.

They both reached the doorway to a room in the back of the building and looked in. Smiling, Everett crouched on the floor, playing tug-of-war with the wolf pup, a silver aluminum halo firmly entrenched between the pup's teeth. Demetria smiled at the sight, then pulled out her cell phone and snapped a shot to send to her boss. Now this was seeing Everett in a new light. Though watching him mop the spilled margarita off her floor and clean up all the glass was something she'd never seen him do either. She had to admit she was grateful he'd cleaned up the floor, the dishes, and everything.

“Oh no, Everett,” his mother scolded. “We need those for the Christmas play.” Mary took the halo away, looking highly annoyed with him.

Everett appeared properly chastised, while the pup looked disappointed his favorite toy had been taken away and was still eyeing it in Mary's hand.

Demetria didn't believe for one minute that the wolf was a shifter. But it did look like a wolf pup, not a wolf-dog mix or a dog that just looked like a wolf. Changing her mind about how she'd manage this, she decided to go along for the ride for just a bit. She could handle a joke the same as the next guy, though she did even better when she had more sleep. She had to admit both the pup and Everett
were
cute.

Everett hadn't seen her standing in the doorway yet as his mother set the halo out of the puppy's reach on top of a table.

Demetria had never imagined a big guy like that—whose normal missions entailed taking down ruthless animal exploiters and the like—would be playing on the floor with a small, white wolf pup. Everett suddenly turned his attention to the doorway. Rather than looking a little embarrassed that Demetria had caught him on the floor playing with the puppy, he seemed relieved and glad to see her.

As Everett quickly rose from the floor, the pup saw a new toy—the shoelaces on Everett's right tennis shoe—and began to tug at them, growling ferociously. “I asked your boss if he could send you to investigate this. I wasn't sure how you were feeling and I know you're on vacation, but this case is so unbelievable and important for both our kinds that I thought you'd want to be involved. And…it's your kind of case as a Guardian agent.”

Mary motioned to Demetria. “Of course she's the only choice for the job. She's like family so she knows this is for real. Anyone else would probably think it was some kind of silly hoax.”

Demetria raised her brows a little.

Everett freed his shoelace from the pup's sharp teeth, lifted him in his arms, and carried him to Demetria. “He's all yours.” But he didn't make any attempt to hand the pup over.

“Why don't you keep him?” No way was she going to take hold of the puppy, even though Everett
hadn't
actually offered for her to take him. She still figured it had to be a joke, and relieving him of the puppy would show just how gullible she was. The way she handled this would reflect on her branch. “We have to track down his parents,” she said smoothly. “I've been given the assignment of taking care of the pup while you track down the mother. That means we're stuck with each other until we resolve this.”

Everett smiled a little. “Nothing would give me more pleasure.” He sounded totally sincere.

It was just too preposterous. “Because of the ramifications of what a wolf-shifter population could mean to us, this has the highest priority. My boss is calling your boss as we speak to let him know he wants you on this assignment with me.” If the JAG branch wanted to perpetuate the joke, they'd have to give her the JAG agent to help “deal with this.” She could imagine taking the pup back to her branch and everyone shaking their heads at her for having been so thoroughly duped.

Everett stroked the pup's head. “I haven't even called Martin about it yet.”

Why was she not surprised? “Really?”

“He won't believe it when he gets the call from your director. He'll think Ben is pulling his leg,” Everett said.

Demetria's mouth hung agape for a moment. That's just the way she felt about Everett and his mom saying this was for real.

“Do you have security tapes?” Everett asked his mother.

“Yes, set up in the front. We looked at them while we waited for you to arrive.”

Photoshopped, no doubt. All planned.

As they walked down the hallway, Everett still didn't offer to hand over the pup. He just cuddled him against his chest as his mother led them to the front. At least Everett loved puppies, which made Demetria remember when he'd rescued a pup from a drainpipe, then washed him and played with him until they could find the owners. She'd forgotten all about that. She thought he had real Guardian qualities, though he probably wouldn't acknowledge it. The puppy genuinely seemed to love him right back, which she had to admit was heartwarming.

“Where are all the other kids?” Demetria considered the bright jungle decor in the front room and thought how lucky the kids were that got to stay here. She wished she'd had a place to play like this when she was little. Her gaze shifted to the tropical fish in the tank. She could just imagine the little jaguars loving those and the bright-green iguana she'd spotted.

“All the children are in the back room with Heidi until we can sort this out. I need to help her though.” Mary played the video for them. “Heidi and I both checked the videotapes while we were waiting for Everett to arrive, hoping maybe the woman revealed enough about herself that he could quickly locate her.”

In the video, several moms and dads checked in their babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Lacy was dropped off wearing an angel costume and angel wings, and Demetria wondered why she was here, but not her brother and sister. Then a woman wearing a white winter coat, black suede shoes, and a fluffy white knit hat that hid her hair walked the little boy into the room.

“That's her and that's the boy. The wolf pup,” Mary said.

Demetria got a blurry glimpse of the woman's face as she lifted the boy over the children's gate and left a blue bag on the floor beside him, then hurried out of the day care. Not once did the woman speak with the boy. He turned to watch her go, then heard Heidi coming to see who had just entered the day care, and his gaze shifted to the brunette with dark-brown eyes, her mouth parted in surprise. “Where's your mama?” Heidi asked.

“Mommy and Daddy are coming to get me later.”

Her eyes widening a bit, Heidi hurried over to the door and peered out the window, but the woman had already left. The boy began pulling at his coat and said, “Gotta shift now.”

“What?” Heidi took the boy into the back, and that was the end of the tape of his arrival.

“You don't have any security cameras in the parking lot?” Everett asked.

“No. But I doubt the woman was the child's mother. She wouldn't leave him off here and then shift. She would know her son would shift too then. Well, if they're anything like us,” Mary said. “And we would have smelled a different wolf scent on her. She was strictly human. At first, Heidi just thought she'd left a human child off. What else was she to think? Then the business with him trying to shift in the front room? Because the woman didn't sign him in, we figured it was a case of getting rid of him.”

Demetria shook her head, but this was why she was a Guardian. Kid issues always concerned her.

Everett ran the video again. But none of them saw anything else to aid them.

Mary said, “Why don't you see Maya and ask her if she knows anything about this.”

“Tammy might have told you that Maya is our half sister,” Everett explained to Demetria.

“Yes, she spoke about Maya and her brother, Connor.” Tammy had been thrilled to learn she had a half sister and brother. Demetria couldn't have been more pleased for her, but since they lived near Houston, Demetria had never met them.

“What would Maya know about this, Mom?” Everett asked.

“She called to tell me when she and her mate were coming for Christmas right before I talked to you. I told her I had a wolf pup shifter fighting with the jaguar cubs, and she asked me who was going to handle it. Like every day a boy turns into a wolf pup at my day care! I told her I was calling you because you weren't on a mission, and you'd be on your way immediately. She told me to have you call her as soon as you could. She didn't tell me why. I had to let her go anyway so I could deal with the fighting cats and wolf and contact you.”

The door to the back room opened, and Lacy joined them. She took Mary's hand. “Heidi says she needs you to help with the other kids.”

Demetria looked down at Lacy, her red-blond sausage curls framing her face. She was a pretty little girl. Demetria couldn't imagine how awful it had to have been to be stolen from her parents at the Costa Rican resort. And then to see the kidnappers and Matt die… Lacy must have been scarred emotionally. “Are you going to be in the Christmas play?” Demetria guessed that's why the little girl was here.